Enough with the winter.

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beetlejazz":e9vy2hx2 said:
I know I know, was whining pretty needlessly. But that's what weather is for, right? :lol:
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Smoke inside, it's LOT'S warmer :twisted: My artheritic knees don't do well in the cold so I'll stay in the heat thank you :twisted:
 
Monbla, I would almost consider that sometimes, but I live in a tiny one-room apartment, and I also paint here, which means stretched papers and paintings-in-progress all around the place. Getting tar stuck on those things would just not be a good thing.
 
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beetlejazz":m0krqnt3 said:
Yes, definitely a mitten in one hand, but I really like feeling wether the bowl is heating up, and on what height. But you've got a point, it might be worth it just wear a glove anyway.
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No fingerless gloves available? That might be a good compromise. Or cut your own, leaving one full glove and one with the glove's thumb and first two fingers cut down a bit for easier relights, pipe handling, etc.
 
Years ago they made mittens for hunters. These had a slit across them with the fabric overlapping a bit. When the wearer wanted to shoot, he poked his finger out through the slit to pull the trigger.

(?)

:face:
 
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I'm definitely sick of winter, even though in MD, we have had a mild January. Temps won't be much above the 20's next week. I'm sick of being stuck in my shop/garage with a space heater and sweatshirt. I long for summer mornings on the patio with barefeet and shorts......
 
You guys are ingenious. I was thinking before about cutting away parts of an old glove to create a smoking glove, but obviously just a little slits at the right points will be even better.

I will be later reporting results! :D


BTW, no wonder I had some numb fingers yesterday. The temp had dropped to -30, only checked later why did it feel so darn cold.
 
Yeah :) Well, I knit a lot of mittens anyway and happen to have a ball of lovely thick yarn that could not make a full pair, so now I know what it goes to! :cheers:
 
I LOVE IT that women in your part of the world still do stuff like that. My sister knits, & even had a loom for a while, but it's an occasional hobby. Women don't learn to darn holes in the heels of socks anymore. Or crochet. Or even freaking SEW. Female domestic skills here are distant memories . . . Sad.

:face:
 
Yup, if there's a side to me that's unapologetically feminine, it's the fact that I love knitting, and most of the time knit for other people, taking huge enjoyment in the fact that I'm keeping someone dear to me warm.

Hand loom is way cool! I used to live in this old wooden house (want a shover? Start chopping firewood...) where the land lady had 2 hand looms in the cellar. She taught me everything from start to finish - spinning the big wooden frame to create the warp, the hours and hours it takes to get it to the loom before one can actually get weaving... a fine art and also great fun. Before I left to uni, I would be sitting with her chatting and weaving, and then drinking coffee. She was a very old lady and had the pesky habit of actually just being in the right no matter what the problem. A very kind and generous person. I really miss her.
 
Pics or it didn't happen - :p - helping a relative set their loom a few years back (it was a total pile of junk, BTW, argh! :lol: ) :

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Among the descendants of the old (1700s) settlers here, there is quite an interest in history and keeping the historical technology of their ancestors alive.

One little town, for years, has had an annual flax scutching festival. People grow it, harvest it, and demonstrate the process of soaking it to loosten the fibres, scuching it to sparate them from the stalks, and so on all the way through to finished home-made linen cloth/clothing.

Before work obliged me to move away (Appalachia is a very depressed area so far as employment goes), I got pretty good at most of what is involved in making a longrifle from scratch, which a few people were still doing in the 1930s. Using them to hunt was still pretty common then -- black powder and percussion caps were far cheaper than store-bought ammunition.

Persistent rumor even has it that some even distill their own whiskey. But that's against the law, so it can't be true. :lol:

:face:
 
beetlejazz":91vk5fyh said:
BTW, no wonder I had some numb fingers yesterday. The temp had dropped to -30, only checked later why did it feel so darn cold.
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Makes the -3 (c) here this morning seem almost balmy! :shock:
 
The great So. Cal cold snap of 2012/2013 ended yesterday.
Temps were so low, socks had to be worn. In the house!
We're pretty resilient people though, and I think most of us survived.
I'm sure Hollywood is feverishly working up screen plays, chronicling our
heroism and stoic resolve in the face of nature gone wild.
 
Embrace the cold. Get some proper winter gear and go adventuring around your nearest state/national park. Bring a pipe and some beef jerky. I love the winter.
 
I haven't seen snow in close to 8 years now, I don't miss shoveling it one bit, and I darn sure don't miss the extreme cold associated with the stuff!
 
it's actually been getting below the freezing threshold for water in northern california. frost has been on the ground when i go to work. unacceptable. we pay good money for good weather, right? :tongue:

that being said i've been pretty bummed when i've been trying to smoke outside. until late this week it's been colder than i've been through on this side of the US. i grew up in philly, but since living in sunny CA for five years i've gone soft. i need a nice man cave in a garage so i can have a smoke in comfort.

also, side note, i went to a hippy school when i was young, and actually worked on a hand loom for a while. it was kind of cool. i also learned to sew and cut cloth at the same time. came in useful when i was a punk rocker. had my own rockstar clothes on the cheap :cheers:
kind of wish i'd stuck with it. i'd love to be able to make bags and packs out of condura and leather.
 
Erica Arborea, you're right about that one. I really enjoyed my winter-outside sleep over about a month ago. It was beautiful and very snowy, and there's just now place where a pipeful tastes as good for me as by a campfire. Of course the copious amounts of rum and whisky and dirty songs sung added to the experience as well. Loved every bit of it, even waking up half covered in snow in the sleeping bag, although I could have done without the splitting headache. Although the sight of my companions curled up in their sleeping bags like hungover caterpillars made up a bit for that. :lol: And I do enjoy winter most of the time; I've been just bummed at the inability to get a comfortable smoke (as I can't have a camp fire on my balcony :p )but the mitten-project looks very promising. I will be posting about the results. And perhaps next winter I'll be investing in a heater.


somedumbjerk, your hippy school sounds absolutely cool. You know I don't quite understand the divide to "female" and "male" crafts (no matter what Yak says :lol: ), everyone should just work on what they enjoy, the main thing being preserving the art. I remember chatting with an elderly lady who was very skilled at a certain technique of ornamental weaving that comes from the Karelia (a former part of Finland, nowadays Russia). I would love to try that one! She told me that her youngest son, who was in the army by that time, was really much into weaving and the one she had taught all she knew to. When I was learning weaving, there was a guy living in the same house (it was divided to 4 apartments) who enyjoed weaving too. But he wasn't that much into the preparation part, he was a very religious man and the only time I ever heard him swear was when threading the warp. :lol: Tailoring is still predominantly a male area, and for anyone who enjoys the life outdoors it's good to know some basic sewing skills. It's a bit like for me learning the basics of repairing a bicycle - it's an independence thing. It's good to have a wide variety of skills.
 
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